Expendables: Tales from the Script

26th June 2012

There's been more drama behind the camera than in front of it, but The Expendables saga has one less obstacle to overcome...

The Expendables sequel hasn't had the easiest ride to cinemas, with accidents on set and other dramas behind the scenes. But at least one of those trials and tribulations has been rendered moot with the dismissal of Marcus Webb's claim that Sylvester Stallone stole the idea for the original film from him. Webb said he wrote a script called The Cordoba Caper about a group of mercenaries who band together to take down a dictator and then circulated it to agents. Saying the Expendables script was very similar to his own, Webb took action against Stallone, author David Callaham, Millennium Films, Nu Image Films and Lionsgate.

However, after hearing evidence that various versions of The Expendables script were written before Webb wrote his story and Stallone's lawyers arguing that Webb's efforts were more of a 'caper' film than all-out actionfest, Deadline reports that Judge Jed Rakoff rejected all of Webb's claim, with an official ruling to follow soon.